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mikeamys333
Guest
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? TN
Hi, my name is Amy. I don't know if I'm posting in the right section or not, if I'm not then please forgive me.
I was recently offered a songwriter's contract. The contract is through a company named Paramount Group, out of Nashville. They are basically a company that will record your demo, but they also have contests. I entered a contest and that was when I was offered the contract.
If I sign the contract and let them do a demo, they say that they will pitch my song to whomever they feel would be appropriate. After I receive royalties, they want 5% of any sale I make that is "as a result of their efforts." I guess that means forever, as there's no time limit. Other people who have accepted their deal... apparently Paramount Group (not to be affiliated with the Paramount movie guys, lol)... apparently they put out a compilation CD once a year, and they take several of these songs and put them on the CD. After that, I don't know what happens, either to the songwriter or the song. I've searched the internet and haven't found anything about "what happened afterwards."
So with that info, here are my questions:
1) There is no time limit to this contract. Is that standard or could that be a bad thing?
2) They contract says, any sale I make "as a result of their efforts" they want 5%. Does that mean that my song will be tied up with them (forever), so that I couldn't go somewhere else at some future point? There is not much to this contract, and it seems to me that might be a little vague. If I did go somewhere else, might they be able to at some point, come up and say that I did well "because of their efforts", even though it wasn't? Might it be hard to determine what exactly *was* a result of their efforts?
3) If my song goes on to be one that is included in their compilation CD, any ideas what would happen afterwards? I guess I'm wondering if this is a tactic a company might use to get a song, use it up, and throw it away....?
I have thought of contacting them but they have no contact email. Just a place where you can sign up for their contest newsletter. They request that you *don't* contact them because they are so busy and don't have people standing by to answer questions, is basically what they say. I know of one person who somehow managed to get an email, and was spoken to in a manner that seemed very hard, and said "if she had questions she wasn't ready to make it big." So this too makes it seem, I don't want to say shady, but a little off the beaten path.
Anyway, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I would be very happy to hear it. I'm undecided as to whether or not I should go through with this, on the one hand I feel really good that it was recognized... but on the other hand, if they are just using me for a song, and it doesn't really get "pitched" to anybody but their own people to make a yearly CD... and then if it effectively ties up my song so that I can't use it with anyone else to take it further... well, you probably see where I'm going with this. Thanks in advance.
Hi, my name is Amy. I don't know if I'm posting in the right section or not, if I'm not then please forgive me.
I was recently offered a songwriter's contract. The contract is through a company named Paramount Group, out of Nashville. They are basically a company that will record your demo, but they also have contests. I entered a contest and that was when I was offered the contract.
If I sign the contract and let them do a demo, they say that they will pitch my song to whomever they feel would be appropriate. After I receive royalties, they want 5% of any sale I make that is "as a result of their efforts." I guess that means forever, as there's no time limit. Other people who have accepted their deal... apparently Paramount Group (not to be affiliated with the Paramount movie guys, lol)... apparently they put out a compilation CD once a year, and they take several of these songs and put them on the CD. After that, I don't know what happens, either to the songwriter or the song. I've searched the internet and haven't found anything about "what happened afterwards."
So with that info, here are my questions:
1) There is no time limit to this contract. Is that standard or could that be a bad thing?
2) They contract says, any sale I make "as a result of their efforts" they want 5%. Does that mean that my song will be tied up with them (forever), so that I couldn't go somewhere else at some future point? There is not much to this contract, and it seems to me that might be a little vague. If I did go somewhere else, might they be able to at some point, come up and say that I did well "because of their efforts", even though it wasn't? Might it be hard to determine what exactly *was* a result of their efforts?
3) If my song goes on to be one that is included in their compilation CD, any ideas what would happen afterwards? I guess I'm wondering if this is a tactic a company might use to get a song, use it up, and throw it away....?
I have thought of contacting them but they have no contact email. Just a place where you can sign up for their contest newsletter. They request that you *don't* contact them because they are so busy and don't have people standing by to answer questions, is basically what they say. I know of one person who somehow managed to get an email, and was spoken to in a manner that seemed very hard, and said "if she had questions she wasn't ready to make it big." So this too makes it seem, I don't want to say shady, but a little off the beaten path.
Anyway, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I would be very happy to hear it. I'm undecided as to whether or not I should go through with this, on the one hand I feel really good that it was recognized... but on the other hand, if they are just using me for a song, and it doesn't really get "pitched" to anybody but their own people to make a yearly CD... and then if it effectively ties up my song so that I can't use it with anyone else to take it further... well, you probably see where I'm going with this. Thanks in advance.